There is a price for plastic surgery. (yes. yes. I am a plastic surgeon who will not give you a hard sell to do surgery do surgery do surgery.) Because plastic surgery, the yummy mummy, mommy makeover is not for everyone.
When you get done having your beautiful babies, you wait a bit. I strongly recommend you wait a bit. What will your post baby body be like? Will your breasts stay full or will they deflate? Will they be anywhere near your neck or will they touch your waist? Will your belly look like you are permanently 4 months pregnant or will it get back into an okay territory? How bad does it look when you sit down? And most importantly, does it bother you?
We all have these thoughts. No woman goes through labor and gets done and doesn’t think UGGH when they see their belly skin flop over when they lie on their side that first day. Thank heavens we are ramped up on adrenaline looking at the beautiful new baby next to us, and then sleep deprived and can’t see straight for the next few months. When women show up in my office, they have thought about doing surgery for months, sometimes years. They are not happy. On a frequent basis some thought haunts them. “I can’t buy a bathing suit.” “I was dancing and my bra padding migrated down my dress.” “I look like a boy.” “I look four months pregnant all the time.” “I can’t do sit ups.” “I have to always take in my jeans at the waist, because when I buy pants to fit my thighs the waist is too big.” “I look like I hopped out of National Geographic.”
If you are happy with your body, don’t do anything.
Seeking advice from a plastic surgeon is the next step. You have thought about it, talked to your friends perhaps, and read too much on the internet. You need a doctor to evaluate you. Please here take my advice:
- See a Board Certified Plastic Surgeon. Anyone can call themselves a plastic surgeon. True plastic surgeons are trained as general surgeons first. We are well trained to do all breast and body surgery. I keep seeing women who have the wrong surgery done (especially liposuction when they needed a tummy tuck) because the doctor is not a real plastic surgeon.
- See more than one doctor. I joke if you see three plastic surgeons, you’ll get at least two different answers on how to do something. Many patients fall into what I call a grey area: no surgery is perfect, but all will improve the situation. An example: You have lost breast volume and are mildly droopy. Do you do a breast implant alone? Do you do an implant with a lift? Do you just do a breast lift? Every woman is unique in what they look like and what they want to look like. My Palo Alto patients are smart women. They know their body, they know what amount of scar is okay, they know what look is okay. I educate them, so they can make the right choice for them.
So, getting back to my original point, you pay a price for surgery. The price is not actual money (though yes, you do need to pay actual money too). There are some procedures where the “price” is low: the surgery is easy, short, fast recovery, little downtime, small scar, scars heal well. There are other surgeries where the price is higher: longer, bigger surgery, longer recovery, larger scar, higher chance of other things.